Discharging and quenching mechanism for furnaces



July 3, 1928. I 1,615,795 F. T. COPE DISCHARGING AND QUENCHING MECHANISM FOR FURNACES Filed March 5, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet l Im l Ill mmh f/ f ff/0 r/////// L11/munie@ July 3,1928. l 1,675,795

F. T. COPE DISGHARGING-AND QUENCHING MECHANISM FOR FURNACES Filed March 5, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Panama Julyv 3, 192s.

i 1,675,195 c UNITEDVSTATES PATENT OFFICE,

FRANK T. COPE, OFSALEM, OHIO,` ASSIGNOR T0 THE ELECTRIC FRNACE COMPANY, OF

` SALEM, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO. v

DISCHARGING AND QLUENCHING -MECHANISM FOR FURNACES.4

Application led Hatch 5, -1 925.y Serial No.y 13,185.

Thisv invention relates to continuous furnaces and more particularly to continuous furnaces such as are especially adapted for heat treating small articles such as automobile gears and the like and more particut,larly to means for -discharging and quenching the material.

. The objects of the improvement are toprovide a continuous furnace through which the material to be treated is' moved at a iven rate of speed, means being rovided or rapidly discharging` the materlal from a point spaced from the discharge door and immediately deliverin quenching bath in or er that the material may be quenched when at the desired temperature Aand before ithas been subjected to the cooling effect of the discharge door.

The aboveand other objects may be attained by constructing the furnace` in the manner illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure '1 is a- Vertical longitudinal sec' tional view through a furnace embodying the invention;

Fig. 2, a transverse sectional view through the same; i

gig. 3, a section on the line 3 3, Fig. 1; an v Fig. 4, adetached perspectivey view of one of the movable blocks from which the ,articles are siipported. p

S" ilar numerals refer to throughout the drawings.

The furnace is indicated generally at 1 and may be of any length necessa duce the desired heat treatment.l l"Tyhe heating chamber 2 of the furnace may be heated electrically or by any other well known means and need only be of suiiicient cross sectional area to accommodate the articles to be passed therethrough. l

The ,entrance or charge opening 3 is rovided at one end' of the heating cham er, anda similar discharge o ening 4 at the opposite end. Although drdors mayf be pro- Ysimilar parts vided for these openmgsfand arranged to be- .automatically opened andy c'lfosed to permit the entrance and exit of .the articles under treatment, it is not thought necessary to illustrate the same, and fon e purpose of this invention, it may be assumed that the doors .are dispensed with. r i

\ The general construction of the furnace and the mechanism for moving the material the material to ato prothrough the same, from the charging end, .may be slmilar to that shown in my copending application Serial No. 7 51,024, in which the roof 5 of the'furnace is provided with a central longitudinal slot 6 which may be reinforced asby the angle irons 7;

The articles to be heat treated, which in the present case are shown as automobile gears, indicated at 8, are arranged to -be suspended upon the hooks 9 carried by the blocks 10, provided with the overlapping shoulders 11 at their ends, and having the depending ribs 12 arranged to slidably fit within the slot 6, aflug 13 heilig formed up on the upper side of each block.

In order to intermittently move the blocks forward along the slot 6, for the purpose of continuously moving the articles 8 through the furnace at a desn'ed rate of speed, a reciprocating push rod 14 is provided and arranged to be continuously reciprocated by with the necessary forward movement of the push rod. v

A quenching tank 16 is shown at the discharge end of the furnace andbeneath the level of the" discharge opening 4, and oil or the like, as indicated at 17, is contained in said tank at a suitable level.

A'pair of ide rods 18 are located beond the disc arge end of the furnace and inclined downward and rearward toward the tank and a transfer carriage 19 is slidably mounted thereon and normally held in raised position, asv shown in Fig. 1, by means of the cable 20 which is passed over the pulleys 21 and carries the counterweight 22 which is just sufficient to overbalance the empty transfer carriage.

For the purpose of discharging the material rapidly from a point spaced from the discharge o ening 4, a push rod 23 is ar- Amaterial into the tank, or by any other suitsliding said block out of the furnace and on t'o the transfer carria e 19.` c

The weight of the lock and material.8 is sufficient to overbalance the counterweight 22, the transfer carriage sliding downward upon the guides 18, by gravity, until it contacts with the stop 19 at the lower end of the guide rods.

At this point the transfer carriage registers with a track 25 located above the able device.

It will be understood that instead of the intermittent movementS given to the blocks by the several reciprocating push rods, any Well known mechanism may be provided for continuously moving the blocksthe invention residing in the quick discharging and quenching of the material after it reaches a point spaced from the discharge opening of the furnace, whereby the materiall is rapidly discharged and quenched while-still at the desired temperature.

The advantages of this invention are obvious, as it is well known that when steel is heated up to av certain tem rature, the grain of the steel changes and hcomes finer and,ifthe steel is rapidly cooled at this point, the fine grain is retalned, while if the steel is allowed to lslowly cool, the grain again becomes coarse.

I claim: l

1. A heat treating furnace including pusher means for moving material continuously through the furnace and independent pusher means for rapidly dischargingfand quenchin the material as it reaches a point spaced rom the discharge end of the furnace.

2. A .t heat treating furnace including pusher means for moving material continuously through the furnace, a quenching tank at the discharge end of the furnace, and independent pusher means for discharging the material and moving it into the tank more rapidly than it is moved -through the furnace.

3. A furnace provided with a slot in its roof, blocks provided with article supporting rods dependin throu h said slot, means for-moving the blocks ong the slot to a point spaced from the discharge end of the urnacelandJmeans for movin the blocks more rapidly after reaching sai point.

In testimony that I claim the above, I have hereunto subscribed my name.

4FRANK T. corn. 

